Netflix increasing Bluray Charges - What will you do?

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johnnypark

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Just received this email from Netflix, as I'm sure many others have:

You are receiving this email because you added unlimited Blu-ray access to your account for $1 a month. The number of Blu-ray titles has increased significantly and will continue to do so. As we buy more, you are able to choose from a rapidly expanding selection of Blu-ray titles. And as you've probably heard, Blu-ray discs are substantially more expensive than standard definition DVDs.

As a result, the monthly charge for Blu-ray access is increasing for most plans and will now vary by plan. The charge for monthly Blu-ray access on your 2 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will increase from $1 a month to $3 a month. The price of your 2 DVDs at-a-time (Unlimited) plan is not changing and remains at $13.99 a month.

The new charge for Blu-ray access will be automatically added to your next billing statement on or after April 27, 2009 and will be referenced in your Membership Terms and Details.

If you wish to continue unlimited Blu-ray access for $3 a month, you don't need to do anything. If not, you can remove Blu-ray access anytime by visiting Your Account.

If you have questions about this change or need any assistance, please call us anytime at 1-888-923-0898.

-The Netflix Team
Click to expand...

I can't decide if I'm going to drop it or not. Thoughts?

EDIT: Courtesy of Dmaul1114 and Gizmodo, here's a chart of the Bluray price increase:

[quote name='dmaul1114']Chart from Gizmondo that has the price per plan after increase:
netflix-blu-ray-price-increase.jpg
[/quote]

As Shrike has pointed out, it appears that it's $1 extra per the number of movies you have on your plan the original $1 base fee.
 
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[quote name='guyver2077']question.. i went to change my plan and this came up:

Your plan is no longer offered

You currently have Blu-ray access on your plan for $1.00 a month. Blu-ray access on this plan is now $4.00 a month. If you select a new plan, you will not be able to return to this price.

Does this mean that current subnscribers wont get the price hike?[/quote]

No, it just sounds like to me that when you change your plan you will be paying the new higher price.
 
Honestly this isn't a surprise. Look at it logically. If they have 100 people who use bluray then they need enough copies to supply those hundred people. Copies that cost more then a normal dvd.

As the number of bluray users increase those 100 copies turn into 1000 copies and they need to purchase more to keep up with supply or else people complain about the wait times.

It all comes down to how the extra money will be spent, if your extra $2-8 a month goes towards purchasing new bluray's to reduce wait times and increase supply can you really complain?
 
Last week I bought a crapload of Bond movies, which came out to 7 movies on Blu-Ray. Maybe $20 doesn't seem bad, but a total of $140 does.

I can't spend that much every week. So I don't really mind. A total of $36/year for just Blu-Ray is perfectly fine with me if it means not missing out on a bunch of high def goodness.
 
[quote name='bmachine']$21 a month is still better than any other alternative that I can think of. I'm staying.[/quote]

yeah but thats before taxes, it will be almost 23. mine as well switch to the 4 out at a time and drop blu. i might do that, i find that most movies i'd rather have on dvd cause i think the blu menus suck and are too tiny to read.
 
this is a funny poll!!!! with each of the 5 options getting 20% vote!

however, if you combine them into "not affected, pissed, will deal with it" categories, the breakdown is 20-40-40 still!!!

i for one will probably lower my subscription to 2 movies a month plan. i dont have too much time to watch them anyway and they end up sitting for over a week at my house. i use netflix streaming a lot, however!
 
I canceled the blu-ray access b/c of this. Haven't had time to watch as many movies lately so I am doing 1 at a time and would rather save the $2 extra for blu-ray since I would only get 1 or 2 blu-rays a month and the rest dvd probably.
 
I might cancel it for awhile. I've already downgraded to 3 DVD plan so I could get the Blu-Ray access back in December so I'm not doing it again for a few movies. There hasn't really been anything to watch on Blu-Ray for the past month or so either. If it was $2 I wouldn't mind, but $4 is too much for me.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']I dropped BD when they started charging. I'd rather spend that money and buy them.[/QUOTE]

I get not wanting to pay the extra fee--but before it was $1. That meant you saved $12 a year--so at most you bought one cheap Blu Ray with that saved money! :lol:

Even if we're now paying $24, or $36 for the 3 out at a time plans that's still only 1-3 Blu Rays.

I understand canceling as one doesn't feel it's worth it, but it's still much cheaper than buying--especially since Blu Ray prices still suck.

I don't like the fee, but I won't cancel as I love movies and prefer watching in HD when possible, and the price is still very reasonable for what I get out of the service personally. I'd have of course prefered the fee not be raised, but it would have to get a good bit higher for me to cancel as it's still a good value to me vs other legal options for watching the same amount of movies. Will still be under $20 for the 2 out at a time plan--which is a good deal for access to Blu Rays, their huge DVD selection and the free streaming selection.
 
[quote name='orgy08']Your forgetting the base price in your "calculations"[/QUOTE]

Because he said he dropped the Blu Ray access with the original $1 increase, not that he canceled his Netflix account.
 
Any which way you want to slice it up, it's still a good deal. Even with the extra $1 a month, my membership would come out to $142 a year after tax. How many quality Blu-rays are you getting for that? Even if you find a great, great sale, what, 14 movies? Between whatever movies I get in the mail and what I watch on my 360, I get to watch more than that in a month.

Don't get me wrong. I'm still annoyed, because it's the principle of the thing, and I'm worried about when these little increases will actually stop. How many times are they gonna keep doing this and justifying via the cost of BDs? As far as I am concerned, they should have some kind of deal for existing customers. I know my XM radio subscription just went up, but I was able to sign up for an extended period and get my old rate. We should be able to do that with Netflix, as well, and be able to avoid this and any other future increases.
 
can we add a poll option for "piss and moan, but keep the same service"? actually i might drop down to 2 and keep blu. at least in my head it makes sense because it'll cost the same.
 
This price hike really got under my skin and basically killed all the warm feelings I had for Netflix as a company. I was on the 4-at-a-time plan which is switching from the $1 BD surcharge to $5. I dropped down to 3-at-a-time w/ Blu Ray right after I got the e-mail and have subsequently signed up for a 2 week trial w/ Blockbuster which is like $4 or $5 cheaper than Netflix. If I get comparable service I'm dropping Netflix.
 
I just dropped my Netflix account due to this. Sorry but I'm not paying even more when the wait times on Bluray discs are very long in many cases. Anyone who is upset by this I highly recommend you call 1-866-716-0414. Even if you end up just dropping down to fewer rentals at a given time its good to tell them personally why you are doing so is because of the Bluray price increase. According to the woman I spoke to she admitted that they have had a LOT of phone calls including a number of people dropping their account entirely because of this.

Again, call 1-866-716-0414 and tell them politely why you are either lowering your rental plan or leaving Netflix.

To anyone on Blockbuster Online how good is their service for Bluray rentals? Are they speedy with their delievery or is it slow? Wait times good or bad?
 
I have the one unlimited out plan only cause that's the lowest I could go for streaming on my 360 which is what I'm really paying for. While the extra charged irked me at first, I'm fine with it. Not only do I get HD movies for a couple bucks a month, I get movies on demand. If they work on increasing the streaming selection, I would be more than happy to pay a rate increase for it. My 360 gets more streaming time than gaming time and I couldn't be happier.
 
Maybe this will end up helping with wait times on BR new releases some. If not from them using the fee to buy more discs, maybe from a smaller user base from people canceling their subscriptions or just dropping BR access.
 
Netflix is a waste of money. It's a better investment to just buy most blu-rays. Like a few days ago when I got 10 (most disney/pixar) blu-rays for $10.50 ea from Amazon. Keep an eye out for deals.
 
Not everyone wants to buy every, single movie they have an interest in watching. Even at $10 a piece, which you certainly are not going to find all the time, it's a waste if you are only going to watch a movie once or twice.
 
I just got done dropping blu ray access from my account. I'd drop my netflix altogether but the discs in the mail accounts for such a small portion of my usage that there's really no point in getting too bent out of shape about it. That having been said, I'm not paying an extra $2 a month just to get HD on a small portion of the movies I watch.. Mark my words though, if they start jacking with unlimited streaming pricing structure, I'm done.
 
[quote name='bigdaddybruce44']Not everyone wants to buy every, single movie they have an interest in watching. Even at $10 a piece, which you certainly are not going to find all the time, it's a waste if you are only going to watch a movie once or twice.[/QUOTE]

Yep. I made that mistake with DVDs and have 300 some DVDs and hardly ever watch any of them. I'd generally rather watch something new for the first time.

So I joined Netflix 2 1/2 years ago and have cut back my buying of DVDs and Blu Rays drastically, just picking up favorites that I'll at least watch every year or so.

Now to buckle down and sell/donate DVDs I don't need to own....
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Yep. I made that mistake with DVDs and have 300 some DVDs and hardly ever watch any of them. I'd generally rather watch something new for the first time.

So I joined Netflix 2 1/2 years ago and have cut back my buying of DVDs and Blu Rays drastically, just picking up favorites that I'll at least watch every year or so.

Now to buckle down and sell/donate DVDs I don't need to own....[/QUOTE]

I'm in the same boat....I actually ran out of room on my DVD shelf and pulled some DVD's aside to EBAY, still haven't done it yet though. I honestly could sell most of the DVD's I own as I rarely go back to watch something over as Netflix keeps me updated with new movies.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']I get not wanting to pay the extra fee--but before it was $1. That meant you saved $12 a year--so at most you bought one cheap Blu Ray with that saved money! :lol:

Even if we're now paying $24, or $36 for the 3 out at a time plans that's still only 1-3 Blu Rays.

I understand canceling as one doesn't feel it's worth it, but it's still much cheaper than buying--especially since Blu Ray prices still suck.

I don't like the fee, but I won't cancel as I love movies and prefer watching in HD when possible, and the price is still very reasonable for what I get out of the service personally. I'd have of course prefered the fee not be raised, but it would have to get a good bit higher for me to cancel as it's still a good value to me vs other legal options for watching the same amount of movies. Will still be under $20 for the 2 out at a time plan--which is a good deal for access to Blu Rays, their huge DVD selection and the free streaming selection.[/QUOTE]

I don't have a ton of time anyways, so cutting back on my movies isn't that big of a deal. I never pay more than $16 for a BD, and get anything I want or need. I'm saving for a HDTV, so paying extra for renting BDs never made sense anyways. It was one of those, 'hey, it's free...' things.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']I don't have a ton of time anyways, so cutting back on my movies isn't that big of a deal. I never pay more than $16 for a BD, and get anything I want or need. I'm saving for a HDTV, so paying extra for renting BDs never made sense anyways. It was one of those, 'hey, it's free...' things.[/QUOTE]

To each their own I guess.

To me I'd rather take that $16 and pay for my month of Netflix where I can watch several movies in mail and streaming vs. buying 1 BR that I'll likely only watch 2-3 times over my lifetime.

So it's more cost effective to me to rent and just buy the select few that I'll watch at least once a year or so.

But definitely save up for an HDTV as that's a huge "must have" kind of luxury for anyone big into movies, games etc. Are you just replacing an older HDTV? If not, you're buying Blu Rays without an HDTV?
 
I used to be with Netflix. The increase would bother me. Currently, I am on the BB one at a time for $3.99. Between BB and Redbox, it serves my needs. Plus Redbox's free Wednesdays or Monday codes, are a bonus.
 
I'm on their lowest plan anyway so no change for me. I don't mind it - a lot of blu-rays I get are ones that I realize I'm glad I didn't buy - and it still sure beats paying $10+ going to a movie theater and walking out not liking it.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114'] If not, you're buying Blu Rays without an HDTV?[/QUOTE]

Yes. At a cost difference of about $2 a title, it's a no-brainer.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Yes. At a cost difference of about $2 a title, it's a no-brainer.[/QUOTE]

$2 a title? That's a hard sell since the vast majority of DVDs are on sale for $5-10 6 months to a year after launch where as most blu ray sale prices are in the $15-20 range. New releases you're looking at $15-20 for the DVD and $25-30 for the Blu Ray.

Not saying there's anything wrong with buying them for the future--though I'd personally just hold off on buying movies and put that money towards your HDTV savings fund and then start buying again once you have one. The BRs or DVDs will be available cheaper at that time most likely as well.

And an HDTV makes a huge difference (especially a large one) with movies, games, TV, sports etc. so I cut back spending on all that stuff for a few months a couple years back to save up money. It's something you'll really want as quickly as you can save up for it as it enhances all your media.
 
I jumped from Blockbuster to Netflix recently, despite the $1 extra for blu-ray, because of the streaming service. I have to say, I've been more than a bit disappointed -- not in the streaming selection (I went into it knowing it was going to be mainly older titles, and am relatively happy with the options within my expectations), but rather in the quality of what is offered. I've run into several movies now which have been mysteriously cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio (and badly at that -- no "pan and scan" there, just a straight crop down the sides regardless of what gets cut from the scene), even though the BD/DVD releases are widescreen-only. When I called Netflix to (politely) complain about this, I got a very rude woman who informed me that "not all users have widescreen TVs, and it wouldn't be fair to them." (lamest excuse ever!) All of the foreign films that I've tried to watch have been bad dubs with no option for the original language and subtitles (most of them, I've given up after a few minutes and added the film to my BD/DVD queue).

As far as I'm concerned, those issues are the much bigger problem. But the sudden price jump just adds insult to injury. And, at least for my 3-at-a-time account, it's a 17% increase (and a total of 23% over the cost of a non-blu-ray plan), not 10%. That's a pretty steep jump.

I personally don't really buy the "extra costs" argument, because once you amortize the extra cost of the blu-ray disc across all of the users who rent it over the course of its rental life, it really should be pretty minimal. And if the "extra costs" are such a big factor, why isn't Blockbuster charging extra as well?
 
That's odd, I haven't watched any streaming movies that were cropped yet. Only had a problem with one--Gonzo (Hunter S. Thompson documentary) being very grainy/blurry and unwatchable. And I just deleted it and requested the DVD. The couple foreign films I've watched thus far have been subtitled as well.

Otherwise the service has been great for me, most SD stuff looks just a tad worse than DVDs and the HD stuff just a tad below HD cable (especially current stuff like Heroes season 3).

I can't complain. I wouldn't sign up for the streaming mainly, but it's a nice free bonus on top of the DVD/BR disc service.

I'd probably run into more problems if I used it more, but as is I have a hard time getting through 2 or 3 discs a week (have the 2 out at a time, may go back down to 1 soon as I'm getting busier and the weather's getting nicer soon) so I haven't watched a ton of stuff on the streaming. The first two seasons of Weeds (which looked so-so), Heroes episodes (since it's on the same time as 24) and 10-15 movies I'd guess since the Xbox service launched in November.
 
I don't mind paying an extra few dollars to receive Blu Rays. I do mind when 80% of my queue are items that are not even on Blu Ray. They should have as system wherein you don't pay the extra if none of the disks sent to you in a particular month are high-def. Unrealistic idea, but it would be nice.
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']That's odd, I haven't watched any streaming movies that were cropped yet.[/quote]

The two offenders for cropping that I can remember right off were the movie Smart People and the anime Dead Leaves (which also was one of those dubbed-in-English-only offenders, FWIW). There have been a couple of others, though, and I haven't had the service that long, so I haven't tried to watch that many things yet.

Another dubbed one was the Thai horror film Art of the Devil 2. The dubbing on that one was so bad that I had to just stop it after a few minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. The DVD is in my queue now, but I would have much preferred to have been able to watch it instantly when I wanted to watch it.

Maybe I'm just hitting all of the bad ones somehow?
 
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[quote name='dmaul1114']$2 a title? That's a hard sell since the vast majority of DVDs are on sale for $5-10 6 months to a year after launch where as most blu ray sale prices are in the $15-20 range. New releases you're looking at $15-20 for the DVD and $25-30 for the Blu Ray.
[/QUOTE]

That maybe what you pay, but it's certainly not what I pay. Anything I want I can usually find traded into the CD store within a week or two of release and they are never more than $15.99.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']That maybe what you pay, but it's certainly not what I pay. Anything I want I can usually find traded into the CD store within a week or two of release and they are never more than $15.99.[/QUOTE]

Still, $15.99 is a good bit more than DVDs go for--especially if you buy used DVDs or wait a few months for price cuts and sales. So I still don't get your $2 more than DVD comment. Unless you're comparing used Blu Rays to new release DVDs or something. Or you're used store is owned by retards that only sells the BRs for $2 more than the used DVDs! :D

And again, I hardly buy any movies anymore. Just a waste of money and space for me since I could just get it off Netflix in a couple days anytime I want to watch it. I've pretty much gotten over my collector's bug and just pick up at most 5-10 favorites a year when they're on sale.
 
[quote name='arcane93']
Maybe I'm just hitting all of the bad ones somehow?[/QUOTE]

Yeah may just be bad luck. Or maybe they're just sloppier with very obscure titles? I've never heard of any of those you listed, so they may just not put much effort into stuff they know relatively few people will every watch?
 
Well...I was on the 3 at a time plan and I just cut back to two at a time and kept the Blu-ray option. For me, I don't really want to pay over $20 a month for the few movies I do get to watch. And after the tax and fees are added it would approach $25. That starts to cut into my game budget.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']That maybe what you pay, but it's certainly not what I pay. Anything I want I can usually find traded into the CD store within a week or two of release and they are never more than $15.99.[/quote]

It's still far more economical to rent movies. I understand some people are collectors, but from a cost standpoint netflix is better.

For the cost of one of your used movies, I can view ~10 movies.
 
I just canceled netflix.

I am not going to be a supplicant for Netflix taking my money to subsidize a high revenue low quality product such as their video streaming DRM technology. If you take off the sheen off the marketing wrapper, you get something like "HD-quality" streaming for what is really is -- Translation: 480p upconverted to 720p videos with 640kbps Dolby Digital.

I'm sorry, humans are suppose to be progressing. Trading a superior product (Blu-ray) for nascent DRM-infused inferior technology is not going to happen with my money. It already happened with DRM'd 128kbps iTunes mp3 music and the eventual "double the quality to 256kbps" if you pay more approach. What's to stop Netflix from charging the same tier fees in the future.

Netflix PR is dubious for the rationale: "Blu-ray disc cost more". If I go to amazon and see CONSUMER prices with a delta of $1-5 difference for DVD versions, I am skeptical that Netflix cannot leverage their subscriber base to gain, at the very least, the same BULK rental distribution contracts with studios as they do currently with DVDs.

This is plain theft to get consumers to pay for developing their DRM'd video streaming and to pay the licensing contracts they signed with hardware manufacturers to get Netflix video streaming in their TVs, blu-rays, consoles, and DVR devices. The CFO and his cohorts in the accounting department probably looked towards their company stock prices with this move since the Wall St. loves nickel and dime approaches to meet and exceed quarterly earnings in the middle of this recession. Look at NFLX stockholders and you see they are hitting 52 yr highs because they are moving away towards the consumer friendly model and more towards the bottom line (meet and beat quarterly projections to squeeze as much money as possible).

Thanks, but no thanks.
 
I get the gripes, but kind of silly to complain about DRM with a rental services where you have no ownership rights anyway. Quality complaints, not thinking it's worth the money etc. are fine. But drop the DRM non-sense--it's only worth bitching about with a digital product that you supposedly "buy"--mp3s, ebooks, downloadable games etc. But not with a rental service where you're just paying a subscription price to have access to the streaming content.
 
Wow, yeah, you can't complain about DRM when it comes to a product you aren't even buying. The whole rallying cry behind DRM is that it's like renting the product. Well, in this case, that's all you are doing, so what's the issue?
 
[quote name='ilivas']It's still far more economical to rent movies. I understand some people are collectors, but from a cost standpoint netflix is better.

For the cost of one of your used movies, I can view ~10 movies.[/quote]

+1

I made it a point not to purchase a DVD this whole calendar year, and in exchange i'm doing netflix. For 1 movie unlimited I can manage 8 movies a month which averages to $1.25 a movie (including tax).

My bank account is thankful.
 
I also dropped from the 3 movie to 2 movie plan. Hopefully new release blu ray movies will be easier to get when they come out since it seems a lot of people will be removing blu ray access from their accounts due to the higher fees.
 
I canceled my account. I had the 2 at-a-time, with $1 more for Blu-Ray. Increasing the cost just made it not worth my while. I have a PS3 and 1080p display, and own maybe a dozen Blu-rays, but its just not worth it to me.

[quote name='mattstockton12']I don't mind paying an extra few dollars to receive Blu Rays. I do mind when 80% of my queue are items that are not even on Blu Ray. They should have as system wherein you don't pay the extra if none of the disks sent to you in a particular month are high-def. Unrealistic idea, but it would be nice.[/QUOTE]This was the other killer. Out of the 100 or so movies in my queue, maybe 5 were on Blu-ray. Can't justify the cost when I hadn't rented a Blu-Ray from Netflix in months. I like the format, but nickel-and-diming us in a bad economy is a great way to lose customers. But maybe that's what they wanted.
 
Yes, I was in the same boat. I wanted 1 or 2 blu-rays (Futurama - Bender's Game mainly), I waited 3 WEEKS to recieve it, it still just said long wait. I wasn't paying $1 to recieve blu-rays, I was paying to put them in my queue and wait. Besides, the biggest t.v. in my house is 26". Hardly worth the extra cost. However, if I DID need blu-rays, I'd be happy to pay a few extra dollars a month to actually recieve them.

On Netflix in general, I'm unhappy with their streaming content, I don't actually watch anything. Now that I think about it, I'd rether have in-store exchanges than streaming... :whistle2:k

Oh, I gotta go :lol:
 
[quote name='dmaul1114']Still, $15.99 is a good bit more than DVDs go for--especially if you buy used DVDs or wait a few months for price cuts and sales. So I still don't get your $2 more than DVD comment. Unless you're comparing used Blu Rays to new release DVDs or something. Or you're used store is owned by retards that only sells the BRs for $2 more than the used DVDs! :D

And again, I hardly buy any movies anymore. Just a waste of money and space for me since I could just get it off Netflix in a couple days anytime I want to watch it. I've pretty much gotten over my collector's bug and just pick up at most 5-10 favorites a year when they're on sale.[/QUOTE]

Demand for DVDs>>>>>>>demand for BDs. That's just how it works. They can sell BDs at a lower profit because they move so many DVDs for big $$$$. Plus, they only give back a dollar or two more in trade than regular DVDs, so it's not that much of a hit. I think you've said that you don't buy movies anymore at least twice - we get the picture.

[quote name='ilivas']It's still far more economical to rent movies. I understand some people are collectors, but from a cost standpoint netflix is better.

For the cost of one of your used movies, I can view ~10 movies.[/QUOTE]

That's nice. I can still rent the same titles as you can, for less money. Then use that savings to own at least two more movies a year for the same price I would pay to rent BDs. If I'm renting, I really don't care if it's upscaled or native.
 
Blu-ray should be getting cheaper, not more expensive. I wonder if it's because there are too few blu-ray owners to justify the expense or if there are too many? Either way Netflix has been pretty good about getting me the new release blu-rays in a reasonable time, so yeah, I'll pay em what they want, even though I'm not too happy about it.
 
[quote name='CocheseUGA']Demand for DVDs>>>>>>>demand for BDs. That's just how it works. They can sell BDs at a lower profit because they move so many DVDs for big $$$$. Plus, they only give back a dollar or two more in trade than regular DVDs, so it's not that much of a hit. I think you've said that you don't buy movies anymore at least twice - we get the picture.



That's nice. I can still rent the same titles as you can, for less money. Then use that savings to own at least two more movies a year for the same price I would pay to rent BDs. If I'm renting, I really don't care if it's upscaled or native.[/quote]

I guess it's a matter of preference. I refuse to watch dvds. Blu-rays only for me. I need quality. Eitherway for the price of your one blu-ray, I can watch all of my movies in blu-ray
 
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